


Haircut

by LesbianDragon_LD



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, Byleth comforting Rhea for her regrets and past actions, Character Study, Dark Past, Established Relationship, F/F, Forgiveness, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Other Characters Are Mentioned, Rhealeth, Silver Snow Route, mentions nabateans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28324536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianDragon_LD/pseuds/LesbianDragon_LD
Summary: Rhea decided to cut her hair short, and she asked her beloved for help with the task.Byleth was never one for this type of thing, but she still did her best to help her lover.With both her new haircut, and even emotionally.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Rhea
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28





	Haircut

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gazingatseiros](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gazingatseiros/gifts).



> Here's my fic for a bigbang rhealeth challenge I did with @gazingatseiros (Twitter)!  
> Here's the link to her art:
> 
> https://twitter.com/gazingatseiros/status/1342976864873283584
> 
> And please follow her for wonderful Rhea content! She's amazing!  
> Thank you for creating this project (my first bigbang project, actually) with me, Gaz ;w;  
> And I hope people enjoy it as much as we both did!
> 
> I decided to go with the T and up rate for this fic just to be safe, because despite not having anything graphic and having a good ending, it does mention Rhea's trauma, her past actions and grief/mourning...so if you're not comfortable with reading about such issues, I fully reccomend you skip this one.
> 
> Finally, I'm still taking a much needed break. I'm just posting this fic because this is an older project from us, and I had already written the fic a long time ago. If you're here to see any updates on other fics, you'll have to wait a bit longer. Sorry about that!

When Rhea opened her eyes, she saw strands of green hair fall in front of her, as Byleth’s scissors snipped away in front of her forehead.  
She was sitting down on her chair, but she could catch glances of the hair landing on the floor around her.

“Hold still…” she heard Byleth softly tell her, and she straightened her neck to give Byleth better access to her hair.

“Oh! Okay, this position is much better!” she heard Byleth comment, mere seconds after.

Rhea closed her eyes again, more relaxed this time.  
She felt Byleth’s fingers brush against strands of her hair, sometimes taking their time to slowly caress her before taking the scissors and getting back to snipping again.  
It didn’t take long before Byleth moved from Rhea’s view to her back again.  
She could feel the weight of her hair slowly dissipate as Byleth cut it below her shoulders.  
She couldn’t really see it, but Rhea could imagine just how much green hair was probably adorning her bedroom’s floor by now.

“You know,” she heard Byleth start, as Byleth spoke to her again, “you should have asked for Manuela to do this instead. I think she’d do a much better job than I ever could...after all, I can only do so much when I’ve never done this before...and my father always cut mine with a dagger instead, never scissors like these…”

Rhea smiled.  
Byleth didn’t speak too often, but she sure loved all of her stories whenever she chatted a bit more.  
It reminded her of lazy days at the Academy, back when Byleth was a professor who would often invite her for relaxing tea sessions. And it reminded her of how those same tea sessions made her forget the pain from her past. How Byleth helped her to forget the pain of her past…

“It had to be you to cut it.” Rhea finally answered Byleth, taking Byleth by surprise.

So much so that Byleth stopped cutting her hair.

“Why?” was the only word that Byleth could muster to ask.

“Because…” Rhea started to answer, before pausing for a minute to think...and then continue, “it would be more fitting, for you to be the one who does it.”

Byleth gave her a curious look, but she quickly shrugged it off.  
Her hands got back to their task, of holding Rhea’s beautiful green hair and trying to cut it short in a stylish and symmetrical short hair cut.  
As Byleth continued to snip hair strands away, Rhea continued;

“Do you know why I want my hair this short, my beloved?”

Byleth didn’t know the answer, so she didn’t reply.  
So Rhea continued;

“It’s because I feel like a whole new person now.”

Byleth raised an eyebrow.

“New...person..?”

“Yes...” Rhea nodded, “when I was Archbishop...well...there were times where I looked in the mirror, and I could not recognize myself. I could not see Seiros. All I could see was this strange woman looking back at me, with sorrow in her eyes and a fake smile on her lips, always trying so hard to pretend she was someone that she really wasn’t…”

Byleth’s hands dropped, leaving Rhea’s hair as Rhea continued;

“All I could see was a mask. Rhea, the Archbishop. Rhea, the one whose secrets are sealed with her lips. Forever mourning the loss of an entire city of brothers and sisters...forever mourning a Mother who did not return. A Mother who could not return. No matter how hard I tried...what I did...the horrible things that I did, I…”

Byleth couldn’t see her face, but she could hear Rhea’s voice falter, as her body shook ever so slightly.  
She was crying.  
Byleth didn’t say a word, standing silent again as Rhea quietly sobbed and tried to compose herself.

“I’m sorry, my love…” she finally let out, only for Byleth to walk up to face her.

“You have nothing to apologize for, dearest…” Byleth comforted her, as she bent down slightly to face Rhea, with her hands cupping Rhea’s face to kiss her tears away.

For a while they just stood there, with Byleth leaning down to shower Rhea’s face with kisses, and whispering sweet nothings into her ear to try to make her feel better.  
Eventually, the crying started to stop...but before Rhea could get up from her chair, Byleth moved to kneel down in front of her.

“You don’t have to apologize to me…” Byleth gently told her, “and you don’t need to apologize for showing emotion. We all carry guilt inside us...guilt we can’t just get rid of...so if crying eases the pain, you never have to apologize for it.”

To the surprise of both, Byleth’s words caused a soft smile to show up on Rhea’s lips.

“This...this is why you had to be the one to cut my hair.” Rhea softly laughed, as Byleth stared back at her, confused.

But before Byleth could ask questions, Rhea continued;

“I’ve been around for so long, for so many, many years...I have seen so many faces, talked to so many humans, experienced so much...and yet, look at me. I have never changed once since that tragedy...not even once...until I met you.”

Rhea’s hands moved on top of her own lap, searching for Byleth’s.  
When they found them, she held them. Intertwining their fingers as Byleth allowed her to.

“Byleth...when I met you…” Rhea continued, “I...I wanted to do something terrible to you. Something I thought you’d never forgive me for.”

The silence in the room was so deafening that once Rhea stopped talking and the room fell quiet, she could hear Byleth swallow as her eyes darted away from Rhea’s.  
Shyly staring down at the floor.  
At the strands of green hair on the floor, avoiding her gaze.  
She often did this when she didn’t know how to react, and that was something that Rhea had learned in their years together.

“You...you do know what I wanted to do to you, don’t you, Byleth? At that terrible day, in the Holy Tomb...when I asked you to sit on my mother’s throne…?” Rhea asked her, with the pain and guilt in her voice showing as clear as day.

“You wanted me to die, so your mother could live.” 

Byleth’s cold and short response pained Rhea’s soul like a sword piercing through her heart.

“I...I did, yes...even now I can’t deny it, no matter how much I truly regret my actions, and my feelings…” Rhea let out, as Byleth’s silence continued to hurt her, “even if we had grown close, I was still...I was still blinded. I was a horrible person, who did terrible things. I can never...I can never forgive myself for them, even if my words seem meaningless now…”

To Rhea’s surprise though, she felt Byleth’s hands squeeze her own, as if trying to quietly comfort her.

“Byleth…” Rhea continued, “there’s a reason why I’m bringing this up.”

Rhea leaned in, with one of her hands letting go of Byleth so that she could carress Byleth’s cheek, gently coaxing her to lock eyes with her.

“My love…” Rhea murmured, “somewhere between that tragedy and seeing you stand up for me, I lost myself. I became nothing more than an empty woman, driven mad by grief...but at that day, at the Holy Tomb...seeing you stand up for me, facing students that you loved so dearly just to protect me, despite everything I had done to you...you were the reason I was able to open my eyes, finally, after so many years of being this hateful, empty, grieving horrible woman.”

Byleth stared, confused, as Rhea’s thumb continued to stroke her cheek with caring love and affection.

“You believed in me at a time where I didn’t believe in myself. But you didn’t just believe in the Archbishop, or the Saint, or...in Rhea. Even without knowing it, you believed in Seiros, a simple nabatean whose life was once normal and joyful next to her family. You believed that I was still a person. You believe in the part of me that was caring, and that longed for our friendship, and love, as if tragedy never struck and I had never felt the need to do all those awful things…”

Rhea sighed, and smiled.

“Perhaps I’m being too emotional, and dramatic...but I think that, at that moment at the Holy Tomb, and in the moments that followed...you saw Seiros, instead of Rhea the Archbishop. As I saw Byleth, instead of Sothis the Goddess in a vessel.”

Rhea immediately fell silent after, as if she had regretted a word she had just said;

“Forgive me,” Rhea whispered, “when saying these things out loud, I realize how selfish I truly am. You should despise me. I almost robbed you of your life, trading it for another, using you just to- I’m so sorry...and it’s horrible of me to compare us, when you are not the monster I was...Byleth, my love, I didn’t mean to-”

But before Rhea could finish her sentence, Byleth got up and rushed to embrace her.  
She felt Byleth’s arms wrap around her body right as the last word left her lips, feeling that warm and safe embrace and relaxing into it.

“Byleth…” Rhea sniffled, only for Byleth to softly shush her.

“It’s okay, love,” Byleth calmly assured her, “it’s okay.”

When Rhea’s body shook, Byleth’s hands moved up and down her back to give her some comfort. When Byleth heard her cry out ever so quietly, the embrace tightened.  
Eventually, Rhea’s arms wrapped around Byleth as well, finally pulling Byleth closer and almost into her lap.  
And a warm smile showed upon her lips, as Rhea felt truly loved.  
Her guilt would haunt her for the rest of her days...but Byleth helped her carry it.  
And that was everything and even more that she could ask for, from a woman that she loved so much...from a woman she planned on building a new life with.

“Thank you!” Rhea softly laughed, cheering up as Byleth gave her temple a gentle kiss, before letting go of her completely.

“Do you feel better?” Byleth asked her as she straightened her back.

“I do, my love. A lot better…” Rhea replied.

“I think I understand now,” Byleth started, “why it’s important to you to change your looks...and why it means so much to you that I’m the one helping you.”

Rhea nodded, flashing Byleth a warm smile that spoke a thousand words stuck on her throat.

“There’s no point dwelling on the past...not when you have a life ahead of you. Yours, and mine…” Byleth simply let out for her.

Before Rhea could really react, Byleth had moved behind her again, picking up the scissors to get back to cutting her hair where she had left off.  
She held a strand of Rhea’s hair, and snipped away to give some final adjustments.

“We’ll find you a new look that you can stare at in the mirror...and we'll find it together, okay?” 

Byleth’s words could almost make Rhea cry of joy.  
But Rhea was done shedding tears.  
The new Rhea left her crying in the past, as she let go of it.

“Together, Byleth.” Rhea finally sighed, and it was Byleth’s turn to smile as she finished off with her hair.

With a final strand of green hair hitting the floor, Byleth stepped away from Rhea one final time.  
She grabbed a mirror, and handed it to her lover so that she could stare at her own reflection, and see her new self.

“So...what do you think? I can do it shorter, if you want…” Byleth told her, as Rhea examined herself in the small mirror.

She saw a woman staring back at her, with familiar green eyes and a familiar shade of green hair. However, this time, she saw short, slicked back hair that could no longer hide her face.  
As if she was seeing a whole new person with only a hint of familiarity about her.  
And Rhea couldn’t help smiling yet again, with a wide and genuine smile.

“Byleth...it’s perfect. I love it. Thank you so much, my love…”

Byleth laughed, proud of herself.

“I’m not the best at this...but perhaps I have some hidden talent. I might brag about it to our friends.”

Friends…  
Somehow, the word made Rhea feel something she hadn’t felt for long.  
As if she was indeed a new person, living a new life, leaving behind all the hurt and pain from her lonely days as Archbishop-

“Oh! I forgot your flowers!” Byleth suddenly exclaimed, “I’ll find a way to arrange them in this new haircut, don’t worry about-”

“Byleth.” Rhea interrupted, to Byleth’s surprise.

So much surprise that Byleth stopped, freezing in place.  
Rhea took a second to breath, before finally continuing:

“You...you mean the white lillies?” 

“Yes! The ones you always wear!” Byleth clarified.

“I see…” Rhea murmured quietly, before turning in the chair to face Byleth, “could you please hand them to me, my love?”

Confused, Byleth still obliged, handing her the flowers that rested on top of the table ever since Byleth started to cut Rhea’s hair.  
Rhea got up to meet Byleth, taking the lillies and carefully holding them all in her hands, as if she was cradling a baby.

“Byleth...can you follow me to the lake, please? There’s something I must do…”

Byleth questioned it, but she decided to follow her lover as they got out of the room and went down the stairs to go outside. They passed by some nuns and soldiers, who seemed to have their eyes set on Rhea. They admired her, and watched her walk by with curiosity, as their eyes fixated on her new hair.  
But Rhea paid them no mind, as she walked carrying the lilies in her arms.  
They didn’t even stop to acknowledge a single person who looked at her on their way there.  
They didn’t stop until they reached the lake...and Byleth watched, more curious than anyone else around them, as Rhea kneeled down...and set the flowers to float on the lake’s water.

“They’re drifting away…” Byleth innocently commented, as both her and Rhea watched the flowers slowly disappear before their eyes, floating further and further away from them in the direction of the waterfall.

“They are. But that’s alright, my love…” Rhea assured her, as she slowly got back up again, “I’ve carried those flowers for as long as I’ve carried my burden…”

As Rhea started to explain, Byleth could understand where this explanation was going.  
Still, she let her lover speak, not daring to interrupt.

“White lilies symbolize loved ones who passed away…” Rhea continued to explain to her, as they kept watching the flowers moving along on the water, “that is why I’ve carried them ever since the incident. They have been a part of the person who I once was, a reminder of what I lost, and of what my goal was...but now, much like the grief I have carried, I can be free of them. I will never forget them, but I don’t need them anymore. I want to feel lighter, carry less...remember them in my heart, and not in my person. So the new Rhea, well, she doesn’t wear flowers anymore. Because when she looks at herself in the mirror, there is only new life, and never death.”

As soon as she finished, both women watched as the flowers got too close to the waterfall, being hit with drops of water that slowly pulled them down.  
Making them peacefully sink to the bottom of the lake, as none tried to stop them.  
Byleth quietly approached Rhea, taking her hand in hers as they both stared off into the lake, and watched the clouds lazily fly by above them.  
For the first time in years, as Rhea stood there with her lover next to her, she was able to feel true peace. As if a new day had finally started, after centuries and centuries of a long and horrible night.

“Aunt Rhea! Aunt Rhea!” they both heard a voice call out suddenly, and they turned back to see Flayn run to them in a hurry, “someone said that you were acting strange! I didn’t even get time to fetch father, or Catherine, or even professor Manuela! Are you hurting again?”

Rhea tried to comfort a very distressed Flayn, as both her and Byleth assured the younger woman that she was fine.  
Flayn could merely sigh in relief, knowing that it wasn’t the pain returning again.

“But that doesn’t excuse you being out of bed!” Flayn protested, “I’m sorry to sound like father, but you have strict orders from Manuela! No straining yourself until you fully recover! You know that the walks can wait!”

Byleth failed to suppress a laugh, as Rhea failed as well.  
It was surreal to see Flayn finally treat her aunt so casually around people, and it was another welcoming change into Rhea’s new life where she no longer needed to hide her true identity. And it was even more surreal to see Flayn pout, scolding her aunt one more time, as Rhea apologized profusely with a smile on her face.

“I’m sorry, Flayn. There’s no need to call for Seteth, or Catherine, as I don’t wish for any of them to drag me back to bed. We were just on our way back but I simply got too excited. since Byleth gave me a new beautiful haircut,” Rhea excused herself to Flayn with a silly grin, as she and Byleth shared a glance at each other, “and I wanted to show it to everyone.”


End file.
